Joe B. Hall `Didn`t Want To Be An Old Coach`

DENVER — It should have been a night when Jim Valvano and Lou Carnesecca prepped for the Festa Italiano to be held Sunday in the final of the NCAA`s West Regional.

After all, Valvano`s North Carolina State Wolfpack pushed Alabama out of the Big Show 61-55 Friday night, and Carnesecca`s Redmen of St. John`s did the same to Joe B. Hall`s Kentucky Wildcats. But Joe B. had a little surprise planned, though it didn`t help him through an 86-70 defeat.

After 13 controversial seasons in Lexington, Ky., Hall turned in his clipboard as head coach. He did it while Carnesecca was being ignored by an acre of media types.

``It`s a decision I came to when I started coaching,`` Hall, 56, said after making his official pronouncement.

``I didn`t want to be an old coach. I told my wife that when I started, right here in Denver at Regis College. And I said it again when I got the job at Kentucky. I didn`t want to coach past 55, and I`ve cheated a little bit, but this is my last basketball game.``

Hall said he made a final decision last summer, then kept his mouth shut as the Wildcats labored through a dismal 16-12 season.

``I lied about this during the year, I know,`` Hall said, ``but I didn`t want to do anything to distract a team that was going through some rough times.``

Whatever Hall`s schedule, his departure came as an official upset to Kentucky athletic director Cliff Hagan, who said: ``Although we had discussed this from time to time, I am truly shocked.``

The first name to kick off the backboard in the matter of Hall`s successor was Dan Issel, a Kentucky alum currently in the employ of the Denver Nuggets but retiring from pro basketball after this season.

``Dan would be as good a choice as anybody, wouldn`t he?`` Hall said. But he added, ``I don`t want any input.``

Issel, a Batavia, Ill., native, indicated Saturday that he was neither interested nor qualified for the job. Informed that ESPN had reported the job is his if he wants it, Issel said he ``couldn`t believe how people can get some circumstances together and come up with this.``

Another name mentioned prominently, Gene Keady, said he`s happy at Purdue but conceded that the Kentucky position is attractive. Dave Bliss said he wants to stay at Southern Methodist, but Arkansas` Eddie Sutton said he would be interested.

Riley indicated it wouldn`t be him. ``I`ve got the best job in basketball. Los Angeles is a great city, and I`m with an exciting team. The timing would be bad for me right now.``

Dr. Otis Singletary, president of the university, said Kentucky will wait until after the Final Four to name a search committee for a new coach.

Hall`s 13-year tenure at Kentucky wound up at 297-100, with a national title in 1978. He won an NIT crown as well, along with eight Southeastern Conference titles.

Kentucky made three trips to the Final Four under Hall`s tutelage and owned an NCAA tournament record of 20-9 after Friday`s misadventure.

``I decided to let somebody else feel the pressure.`` he said. ``That`s a high-pressure way of life at Kentucky.``

Despite the average of 23 victories a season since taking up the mantle from Kentucky legend Adolph Rupp, Hall has not been everybody`s darling in the Blue Grass State.

He has been compared, and not favorably, with Louisville`s Denny Crum. And the suspicion lingers in Kentucky that the Wildcats under Joe B. were not always what they might have been.

In his own defense, Hall points to a winning percentage of 74 percent within the SEC and, over the last 10 years, the best record in Division I against top 10 programs.

Hall heard the whispers, whether his team was in the Final Four or gone in the subregional. His detractors insisted, simply, that Joe B. couldn`t coach.

It`s been said of others, from Maryland`s Lefty Driesell to Notre Dame`s Digger Phelps to Eldon Miller at Ohio State. But it persisted with Joe B.

The national championship should have helped, but forward Jack Givens got all the credit in `78, when the Wildcats beat Duke 94-88.

Hall was remembered more clearly for his club`s failure in the 1974-75 season, when it lost the title game to UCLA by seven. And he was snickered at when good Kentucky teams, solid teams, wound up nowhere at tournament time.

Although he wouldn`t admit as much, it is equally ironic that his resignation came in a season when little was expected of the Wildcats.

Kentucky was an upset invitee to the tournament this year, and basketball cynics griped that it was simple geography: The Final Four was being played at Lexington this year.

Hall got his team, seeded 12th in the West, past Washington and Nevada-Las Vegas, the fifth and fourth seeds, before confronting a superior gang from St. John`s.

In a season that began with a 1-4 mark, including successive losses to Purdue, SMU, Indiana and much-despised Louisville, the man who couldn`t coach coached his team back from the brink.